Newsletter EUBC by President Franco Falcinelli – April 2020

COVID-19 continues to claim victims across much of the world. There are almost 300,000 victims of this terrible pandemic, which according to some scholars may have been actively spreading as early as October 2019, during the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan. By December 2019, as it is now reported, the virus was already present in Europe. Unfortunately, we noticed it late and many countries of our continent, like Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Turkey, Great Britain and Russia are paying a very high price of human casualties as well as economic and social collapse.

The Director of WHO, Mr. T.A. Ghebreyesus, as a result of restrictive measures imposed by most countries due to COVID-19 that increase anxiety, anguish and mental distress in the population, is calling on all countries to strengthen mental health systems and find effective means of applying the relevant government guidelines.

We can all see and feel how sport has suffered serious damage from this pandemic. The Olympic and professional boxing movement has stopped.

Nevertheless, we are starting to receive news that at national level, directives are being drawn up for the resumption of training. High-performance athletes are following the technical programs agreed with the coaches of the National Teams. But even mid-level boxers follow the guidelines suggested by the Clubs coaches.

Since boxing practice can be individual and conducted in any place using simple and easily available equipment, each boxer can continue to train and maintain his or her performance capacity up to 70%.

The remaining 30%, which includes the pre-competitive activity, like sparrings, pad work, spatial references of the bout and, therefore, the use of the ring, can be recovered in a short time.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the National Federations and their staff for the valuable work they continue to do in this difficult moment, but also all boxers and coaches who continue to develop individual training to keep themselves in a satisfactory psycho-physical and technical condition to be able to face competitions as soon as possible.

Boris Van der Vorst, President of Dutch Boxing Federation

The President of the EUBC Passion for Boxing Commission, Mr. Boris van der Vorst, has proposed an interesting form of competition for everyone: the “Shadow Boxing Challenge”. It is meant to inspire the boxing family to be fit, motivated and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The regulations are very simple, but effective for social networks, has been sent to all European Federations.

Despite the halt of competitive activity, AIBA, EUBC and other Continental Confederations are continually in contact in order to discuss the current issues and try to predict and plan the 2020 world and continental competitions.

During the last Conference Call organized by AIBA and with the Presidents of the Continental Confederations attending, it was agreed to define the planning of the 2020 boxing events.

Each continent raised issues related mainly to COVID-19 pandemic situation, which caused all sports to stop.

Regarding Europe, I reiterated that all competitions remain suspended until July 31. Whenever possible, the EUBC Executive Committee will be called to evaluate whether the suspension will continue until the end of the year or some International Tournaments and Continental Championships can still be scheduled in the remaining months of 2020.

AIBA Interim President, Dr. Moustahsane, communicated pleasant news for Europe: the 2021 World Championships has been assigned to Belgrade, Serbia.

After New Delhi has not fulfil its financial obligations, AIBA terminated the agreement. Belgrade will now return to host the biggest boxing event of 2021 after 43 years!

We are confident that President Nenad Borovcanin and LOC will be able to pay tribute to Sami Buzoli, Ace Rusevski, Velimir Jeftic Slobodan, Tadija Kacar, Fazlija Sacirovic, Bratislav Ristic, Memet Bogujevci, Miodrag Perunovic, Dragomir Vujkovic the great boxers of the former Yugoslavia who together with Cubans Teofilo Stevenson, Adolfo Horta, Angel Herrera, Jose Gomez, Sixto Soria, the Polish Henryk Srednicki, the Soviets Victor Savchenko, Valery Rachkov and Valeriy Lvov, the Kenyan Stephen Muchoki and the Nigerian Davidson made the 1978 World Cup in Belgrade unforgettable.

It is necessary to add that Dominique Nato, today a member of the EUBC Executive Committee and at that time heavy weight +81 Kg, took part in the competition and after eliminating the Russian Igor Vysotskiy lost against Jurgen Fanghaenel (DDR).

The replacement of Mr. Giorgio Brugnoli, who resigned from AIBA EC, was also discussed. Mr. Brugnoli was elected at the AIBA Congress in Moscow in 2018 and provided his precious expertise and experience to AIBA. I would like to thank him for the valuable contribution he has made in his role as AIBA EC Member.

I would like to conclude this newsletter with sad news. Our friend, Beket Makhmutov, former AIBA EC Member, has passed away. We will never forget his honesty, competence and dedication to promote boxing in Kazakhstan and worldwide.